The electrical systems of modern motor vehicles are provided with a multiplicity of electrical loads, a substantial portion of which are used to implement convenience functions.
One of the above convenience functions can be associated with the automatic actuation of motorized tailgates of motor vehicles. In the case of the known convenience function (DE 20 2005 020 140 U1), provision is made for a user-side operator control event, here a user-side foot movement, to cause the motorized opening of the tailgate. For this purpose, the motor vehicle is provided with a corresponding sensor arrangement and a sensor controller associated with the sensor arrangement. The arrangement is such that the sensor controller generates an operator control message in the case of an operator control event. For this purpose, the sensor controller is used, in operator control event monitoring, to monitor the sensor measured values for the occurrence of a behavior of the sensor measured values which is characteristic of the operator control event to be detected.
The above known method for detecting an operator control event using sensors enables particularly convenient motorized actuation of the tailgate of a motor vehicle. The design of the sensor controller is decisive for the actuation reliability. Difficulties may arise if a disruptive situation causes a behavior of the sensor measured values which partly corresponds to the behavior of the sensor signals of the operator control event to be detected. This may result in an operator control event being deemed to be detected, even though only a disruptive situation is actually present. This is associated with a reduction in the operational reliability of the method in question.